Jan Ladislav Dussek - Style

Style

Dussek was a predecessor of the Romantic composers for piano, especially Chopin, Schumann and Mendelssohn. Many of his works are strikingly at odds with the prevailing late Classical style of other composers of the time. However, despite his departure from the mainstream idiom of contemporaries like Haydn and Mozart, Dussek's stylistic influence over later composers was limited since his works remained highly obscure and largely unknown outside of England. The evolution of style found in Dussek's piano writing suggests he pursued an independent line of development, one that anticipated but did not influence early Romanticism (somewhat in the manner of Gesualdo).

His more notable works include several large-scale solo piano pieces, piano sonatas, many piano concertos, sonatas for violin and piano, a musical drama, and various works of chamber music, including a Trio for piano, horn and violin, and the highly unusual sonata for piano, violin, cello and percussion entitled The Naval Battle and Total Defeat of the Dutch by Admiral Duncan (1797, C 152), which is an extremely rare example of pre-20th century chamber music that includes percussion.